Buying Alaska

8/1/1868

With this check, the United States completed the purchase of almost 600,000 square miles of land that would become our 49th state. This Treasury Warrant, issued on August 1, 1868 at the Sub-Treasury Building at 26 Wall Street, New York, New York, transferred $7,200,000.00 to the Russian Minister to the United States, Edouard de Stoeckl. The purchase price of the 49th state -- two cents an acre.
Text adapted from “Teaching with Documents : OurDocuments.gov” in the November/December 2002 National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) publication Social Education.

National Archives, Records of the Accounting Officers of the Department of Treasury